The New York Age

The New York Age
"The Afro-American Journal of News and Opinion"
The New York Age
Cover of The New York Age on November 9, 1918
Typeweekly newspaper
FormatAfrican-American newspaper
Owner(s)Timothy T. Fortune (1887–1907),
Emanuel Fortune Jr. (1887–1907),
Jerome B. Peterson (1887–1907),
Fred R. Moore (1907–1943)
EditorTimothy T. Fortune (1887–1907),
Jerome B. Peterson (1887–1907)
FoundedOctober 15, 1887; 137 years ago (1887-10-15)
CityNew York City, New York, United States

The New York Age was an American weekly newspaper established in 1887 in New York City. It was widely considered one of the most prominent African-American newspapers of its time.[1] It also went by the names the New York Globe, the New York Freeman, and the New York Age Defender.

History

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Origins, 1884–1887

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The New York Age newspaper was founded as the weekly New York Globe (not to be confused with New York's Saturday family weekly, The Globe, founded 1892 by James M. Place or the daily The New York Globe founded in 1904), an African-American newspaper that was published weekly from at least 1880 to November 8, 1884. It was co-founded by editor Timothy Thomas Fortune,[2] a former slave;[3] his brother, Emanuel Fortune Jr.; and editor, Jerome B. Peterson.

The newspaper became the [New York] Freeman, from November 22, 1884 to October 8, 1887, published six times weekly.

1887–1960

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On October 15, 1887, the newspaper officially became the weekly New York Age. Fred R. Moore bought the paper in 1907 from Fortune brothers and Peterson.[4][5] Peterson continued to work at the paper after the sale, as an advisor; and was made the American consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, from 1904 to 1906.[6][7] From 1953 to 1957, it was titled the New York Age Defender.

Gertrude Bustill Mossell worked at the New York Age from 1885 to 1889. W. E. B. Du Bois also worked there.[8]

The 1974 Reawakening of the African-American weekly

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In 1974, the New York Age was revitalized by Adam Clayton Powell III in an attempt to recapture the energy and influence the original Age had. The new version of the paper initially published 100,000 copies.[9] The New York Times reported in 1974: “The paper has six, full‐time reporters and will have bureaus in the Bedford‐Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, in Harlem and in Newark.”[9]

Personnel

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  • Olive Arnold Adams[10][11]
  • Bertram Baker, special columns
  • William A. Clarke, sports editor
  • Lewis E. Dial, sports column
  • Richard Durant, music critic
  • Timothy Thomas Fortune, editor
  • Emanuel Fortune Jr., editor
  • William Henderson Franklin, correspondent[12]
  • James H. Hogans, wrote news of railroad men and church doings
  • Vere E. Johns, arts column, art critic[13]
  • Jerome B. Peterson, editor[6]
  • Ebenzer Ray, special columns
  • Chester R. Thompson, editor of the Brooklyn section
  • Lester Walton, theater critic; and son-in-law of the publisher, Fred R. Moore
  • Ludlow "Buster" Werner (né Ludlow Waymouth Werner; 1907–1967) managing editor in 1929; and grandson of Fred R. Moore

References

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  1. ^ Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Volume 2, pp. 901-02 (2004).
  2. ^ Horner, Shirley (October 3, 1993). "About Books". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 19, 2007. Timothy Thomas Fortune, a pioneering black journalist, who went on to start The New York Age, once the nation's leading black newspaper, moved to Red Bank in 1901
  3. ^ H-Net.com: Review of Quigley, David. Second Founding: New York City, Reconstruction, and the Making of American Democracy Archived 2007-06-11 at the Wayback Machine (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004) ISBN 978-0-8090-8513-2
  4. ^ "Moore, Fred R". Oxford African American Studies Center. Retrieved February 24, 2012. [dead link]
  5. ^ "Age Always Has Battled For Improved Conditions". The New York Age. 1952-08-23. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-03-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Jerome B. Peterson: Former Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue Here". The New York Times. February 22, 1943. p. 17. ISSN 0362-4331 – via The Times Machine.
  7. ^ (no headline - it's the tiny paragraph in the rightmost column on page 4, immediately above the clothing ad) in the Tacoma Times; published May 16, 1904 (via Chronicling America).
  8. ^ "PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project". Archived from the original on 2011-06-24.
  9. ^ a b "New York Age, a Black Weekly, Publishing Again (Published 1974)". The New York Times. 1974-04-21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  10. ^ "Spirit That Started Age Still Lives," by Olive Arnold Adams, New York Age Defender, Vol. 75, No. 24, August 27, 1955, pps. 1–2 (accessible via Newspapers.com, p. 1 and p. 2; subscription required)
  11. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths Adams, Olive Arnold". The New York Times. March 27, 2016. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
  12. ^ Penn, Irvine Garland (1891). The Afro-American Press and Its Editors. unknown library. Springfield, Mass.: Willey & Co. pp. 347–348 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ^ "Gladys Bentley Was The Gender Nonconforming, Lesbian Superstar Of The Harlem Renaissance". BUST. 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
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